Equitum sidereus
by Natospec
Summary: Knights starlight 'mech lance. and the misadventures of the mechwarriors as kids at the academy,periphery, through to the beginning of the jihad. starts  after prologue a few years before the blakist jihad, using a modified timeline.
1. Prologue My history dies here

Humanity prologue

**I've decided that I'm going to make a series out of the one shot I made. I don't know why I've decided this but I have so here you go. If I'm off cannon, it happens. Mostly because I don't care.**

**Ulquirorra9000 and rogue baron s stories as well as ye-olde battle tech novels (yes I have them, I'm cool like that, I have them all save as .rtf files on my computer, three different hard drives, and in hard copy, I don't know where the friend that gave me the thumb drive with the novels on it got them, I don't care though either, just try and sue me over it, you won't get shit.) work as inspiration for this adventure I'm sending you on… I don't mind misspelling your names people. I haveith not the time to find it spelled correct if I spell them incorrectly. **

**This prologue will be followed up by a past like thing showing the misadventures of my characters until they get to where they are in this prologue, which will then go into some other stuff, go through my one-shot via copy and paste + adding stuff. **

**Disclaimer:Insert disclaimer here, even though I'm pretty sure battle tech encourages people to make their own stories. Oh well, I own nothing any way so who cares?)**

From viewpoint of Major Fawkes Crawly.

On board the jump ship_** Equitum Sidereus**_ (Knights_ Starlight) Just arriving at Atreus jump point._

_ "Captain; were in system now?" _ I carefully ask, noting the mass of jump-ships surrounding the capital planet Atreus. A nagging feeling in my head telling me that something was deathly wrong, the feeling reinforced by the bloodied handprint painted on the sides of each of the jump ships.

"Yes Major; but something seems to be off… we should be getting hailing frequency's from the spaceport by now. Navigator Gaulle; pull up satellite footage on the big screen. Technician Manag; tell the crew to keep the jump reactor warm in case we have to leave quickly." Captain Marcus Tallow orders the crew, a bead of sweat forming on his brow, showing his unrest at the situation and worrying me even more than I already was.

The navigator makes a grunt of confirmation and quickly pulls the footage from an orbital satellite onto the bridges main star-map screen, everyone on the bridge looks upon it in varying degrees of confusion. The spaceport, the capital city of the free world's league, were all covered in a thick orange fog and hidden from view at that level of magnification. I look at the captain in confusion and he calmly tells the navigator to increase the magnification of the satellite to ten thousand feet.

The picture blurs slightly as it focuses through the thick orange smog. My stomach jumps to my throat as the picture focuses on the decimated city below. Hundreds of thousands of fallen bodies were strewn across the streets, all of them in varying degrees of decay. One of the female technical officers on the bridge loses her lunch at the image, an image that shouldn't even be possible, Atreus city… Was dead.

"Jesus… captain… What happened? We were only a sol-month late. What could have possibly…?" I lose my voice as I stare in disgusted awe at the scene before me, the gravity of the situation finally sinking in. I look at the captain who flicks over a toggle switch that turns the screen off, removing the horrifying image of the once picturesque city from view.

"Marcus; We have to get out of here, bring us to the Arc Royal, hopefully we can alert them to the situation before anything happens to that system, there is no way that this is an isolated incident." I say to the captain as I repress my own urge to throw up. This horrifying… genocide is the only term that came to my mind.

"Fawkes… what happened here?" Marcus asks me, still frozen in awe. None of us has seen anything like this before. This massive amount of people being indiscriminately killed men, woman and children, almost all civilian except the knights of the free world, returned to the capital for a simple celebration, all dead.

"This is a biochemical attack. I've never seen something of this caliber in all my days, at the academy they taught us about this kind of thing, but the Ares convention prohibits even the simple research of these weapons. This shouldn't be possible. Whoever did this did it to kill as many people as they could. Get us out of here now!" I say raising my voice slightly at him, getting out of the free world space could save our lives. What if this was never given out as a message to the rest of the universe, what if were the only people to know of this? We had to go now.

"Technician Manag; get the jump drive going! Get us to the ARDC now! I don't care how much powers you will need to do it just make it happen!" captain tallow's hurriedly says to the jump technician. I rush from the room to go see my team. My MechWarrior's have to be alerted of what happened to their home. First we lose our friend, now our whole entire world.

I soon arrive at the blast-door leading to my lance mate's rec-room aboard the _Sidereus _and I palm the electronic panel next to the door. It silently slides open and I step inside, the clank of my boots on the steel deck weighing heavily on my heart, almost mocking me with the consistency of the noise. The message I come to deliver is not a happy one. As I step to the center of the room the noisy din of the radio quiets, Miala Senn and Niels Myron, The only two members left of my lance after the last years bandit patrol, stand up to look at me. Upon seeing my face the smiles adorning there's instantly drop.

"Fawkes… What's wrong? Are we gonna be even later? Awe man the general is going to be so pissed at us!" Niels says at seeing my downtrodden look. I stare up at him and instantly he knew he was wrong, muttering something along the lines of "oops" at my intense stare.

"Were not going to Atreus… guys, I've got some really bad news…" I feel a tear slide down my face, a warm burn of sadness echoes through my head."Atreus…Atreus has been attacked, with… with a biochemical weapon… no one is there to greet us when we land." I finish what I was saying and storm from the room; I still had a job to make sure we got the message to Phelan Kell, and facing the sadness of my teammates wasn't something I wanted to do right now. I make my way to the bridge, wiping my tears off on the sleeve of my coat as I enter the large blast door into the large bridge.

"Captain; Are we clear of the system?" I ask careful not to allow my emotions to cloud my judgment. I seriously look forward to getting out of the sight of my peers and back to my quarters were I can be left the hell alone to think. Too much has happened all of the sudden for me to be able to just simply sort out immediately.

"Yes, were out of the commonwealth right now, it will take a few weeks to get to ARDC space. Comstar is down for some reason. When you key in the news network all we receive is that bloody handprint insignia. Do you think it could be Comstar doing? I mean Comstar has always been really secretive of what was going on in their space, and recent rumor says that Jerome Blake's fanatical followers have taken the place over." The captain theorizes, almost making too much sense, I mean, that bloodied claw… I've seen that somewhere before, on a 'Mech towards the end of the patrol we went on for the past year. It was a Rifleman, and the guy was a pain to put down. I actually had to kill him by stomping on his cockpit, and even then it seemed like I had to shoot him again to stop his Battlemech.

"Just get us to the ardc, I'm going to my quarters, tell the quarter master I want my room to stay locked. I need to think." I say, not commenting on his thoughts. I just turn around and silently march down the steel corridor to get to my quarters, when I reach the room I palm the lock, the door slides open under its own power allowing me in.

I walk through the door and pull a small aluminum block out of the panel on the other side, turning off the power to the external entrance pad and effectively sealing me in until I put the fuse block back into the panel.

I lie down on the bed and think back on all the times on Atreus. All of the times when we were all innocent, when we were happy, when every-one was still alive and we were trying to grow to be the best MechWarrior's ever.

**That ends the prologue, now on to the first chapter, which I will promptly write and post, give it a week max. Maybe even later today if I type fast enough and can find the inspiration. **


	2. Welcome to Athena

Equitum Sidereus chapter 2

{Author note, second chapter, houses paint scheme is mek tek mech packs ops-taiga winter, I've been electrocuted quite a lot, and did I mention I hate the cold? And the hot, I hate that worse than the cold, cold you can fix with enough blankets, but when it's really hot, not much you can do about it.}

Chapter prologue (just to kick it off to where I can go into it the way I want to)

It was early December, snowing in Atreus city. When the recruitment officer came to my door and told my parents that my brother had been made a lieutenant, a Knight of the free world's league and was shipped off to help control the star system after operation bulldog.

The recruitment officer was also there to pick me up. I was only 9 at the time and it was an odd thing, being a 9 year old trainee. I remember it all like it was yesterday. Back when we could all have fun as trainees, not killing or fighting our way through life yet.

TRAINING DAYS

"Instructor McGrath; when are we gonna get to the academy?" I ask, my light voice sounding whinier than I meant for it to. I was riding in the back of a hover tank refit to use as a transport vehicle.

The instructor looks back with a small smile and annoyingly ruffles my hair, giving my simple flat-laying hair a messy look.

"Soon my little friend soon, it takes a while to get out of the city. Especially long to get to the training academy, you wouldn't want a trainee in a _BattleMech_ stomping through your neighborhood do you?" he replies, allowing the hover tanks auto pilot to basically drive itself through the snowy dessert.

"But we have been driving forever!" I whine, but I get no reaction either way out of it. I just can't wait till I get to the academy; I'm so excited to learn how to pilot a '_Mech_ like my big brother.

"Just a few more minutes, you can see the fence around the main complex right now, About 5 kilometers away. So we will be there very soon." He says while continuing to stare out at the almost endless expanse of snow, the large furrocrete block walls of the training camp quickly getting closer and closer. I almost wish I was there earlier; during the summer cycle months when it was sunny and warm outside, all I know is that it's probably going to be very, very cold outside. I hate the cold, never really did like it at all.

I look up from my spot on the seat and pull my winter bomber hat onto my head farther, its synthetic fur ear flaps cutting off the biting cold coming through the windows from hitting my face.

"Alright Fawkes, here we are; welcome to Athene" McGrath announces as the hover craft swiftly shoots underneath Athene's giant iron gate, built to stop even an Atlas ramming it.

I unclip the harness holding me to the seat and stand on it to look out of the open window, Snow covered warehouses and _BattleMech _storage bays line the edges of the wall, along with several groups of huge diesel fuel storage tanks for the mech transports and generator powering the academic base, In the center of the enclosed space was the combat and logistics academy building, a huge starfish shaped building with circular shaped buildings connected to the 'arms' of the building, a 200 foot tall spire that houses the many different faculty rooms. Administrative offices and non academic offices of the base sits atop the center of the structure.

We continue to drive past the academy building and through a second blast door Into an even larger space, this one comprised of the same factory like warehouses and hangers, as well as a large amount of '_Mech_ Hangers, all numbered in rows with huge red block letters. I notice that the two separated areas both had _BattleMechs_ in storage bays spread around the area, but this one had many, many more.

"Why do both areas have '_Mechs_?" I ask the instructor while I look around some more, seeing the different trainee housing buildings, ten of them, all looking to be the size of an average middle class house, maybe a bit smaller.

"The front gates '_Mechs_ are the bases security force, they are there just in case someone attacks the base. We have to protect the trainees, the other '_Mechs_ are all the trainee machines, we keep a lot around so people have a choice of what '_Mech_ they want to learn on. This sector is all for the Mechwarrior trainees and the trainees for the knights like yourself, the academy sector out at the front area is for the foot soldiers and all of the logistics officers." He answers as the hovercraft slows to a stop in the parking lot in front of one of the trainee buildings. Its floatation skirt deflates and empties out, gently laying the hovercraft down on its frame.

The large cockpit like canopy of the hover craft opens with a thin hydraulic hiss and I step out of the vehicle onto the snow flecked Ferrocrete parking lot, the cold immediately biting my face, I shiver a bit and gaze longingly at the housing unit nearest me, I just know it will be warm in there, then look up as The instructor walks into my field of view, thankfully walking towards the same cozy looking building I was looking at. I follow him in a slow jog, my smaller height making it hard for me to keep up with him without jogging.

We quickly reach the building and the instructor opens the door, up close I can finaly see the whole structure, simple, one story house, around 1500 square feet in size, painted a strange snowy camouflage color, and blocks of split oak wood logs stacked 10 wide and 3 to wide, probably just firewood, I continue my observations to the inside, the first room resembled a living room, a large hologrid emmiter for a television was station against one of the off cream white walls of the inside of the room, a large L shaped sofa laying up against the wall next to the door, as well as a fire place and a comfortable looking leather armchair up against the wall leading into a hallway with four identical rooms, each containing a simple dresser and closet, as well as a thick memory foam bed, and each room had a door leading to separate bathrooms. Those just as simple and utilitarian as the rest of the house, at the very end of the hallway a medium sized kitchen was located, with gas appliances and a microwave, the refrigerator\freezer filled with various essential food items, frozen meat, vegetables, fresh fruit from the native plants, a container of something called hummus, and a lot of cans of an unbranded energy drink as well as some cola and the almighty nectar from the gods known as root beer.

I grab a can of the root beer and silently sip at it as me and the instructor finish the little look around at the very nice house, and then retreat back to the front living room. Instructor McGrath hands me a piece of paper with three photographs and then tells me that they are the people assigned to be on a team along with me, then he left in a hurry, eager to send in the report of my successful arrival.

Soon after he leaves I gather my stuff and pick the room closest to the living room, It's all a big change, living under the instruction of mechwarriors, and the long drive to get to Athena… I decide im tired and lay back on the bed and drift to sleep.

_**Bad ending of this chapter I know, I'm setting up a poll on this story for the formation of how I'm going to structure this story chapter wise, I do not write up what you would call a… timeline? I can't even think of the right word right now because it matters so little to me, every time I've ended up writing up one I end up saying fuck it and never finishing whatever it is I've tried to write because it feels to strict to write according to a personal guide on where I want the story to go, so I need at least 5 or six votes in the positive either way in the next few days (preferably before Saturday) for me to continue this so I can start shelling out chapters. So could you please go to my profile and vote, its not obligatory but would really help me in my pursuit… this is a long ass authors note**_


	3. meeting the starlight knights

**AUTHOR NOTE: going to try and get this one in early, I really do like reviews by the way, at about this point I pretty much run on expensive whiskey, oxidized iron (RUST) and reviews. I'm going with the answers on the poll(if ever puts it up) within the next few chapters. That about sums it up. Bull shit cold ass winter is almost over, then I get few weeks of good 70 degree weather, then it gets hot outside sadly. OKAY HERE WE GO!

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**Meeting the Starlight Knights **

I woke the next morning, groggy and angry at the fact that I was woken whine it was still dark. I look over to the digital projection clock on the space above the door, its red numbers shining out a horribly early time of 3:00 AM. What woke me was the sound of the door opening to the house and something heavy falling. So begrudgingly I decide to investigate, still in the clothing I fell asleep in, I walk to the door and reach up to the knob, turning and pushing, then stumbling out of my room, and I lean against the wall as I scrape my way to the front room. Where the noise must have come from, and to my surprise a short, scrawny looking bundle of a kid that looked like he had to be at least a year younger than me, was sprawled out with an over sized duffle bag strewn over his back.

"Who goes there?" I say in a yawn and walk over to the still open door and close it, I also notice at the base of the door, another pair of black leather combat boots slightly smaller than mine and an even smaller pair of fur-lined pink canvas boots, obviously belonging to the other two who were supposed to be here yesterday. Seems that they learned how to enter a house quietly as to not wake its occupants, I take my eyes off the shoes and bring them back onto the pile of child and winter clothing in front of me.

"Oi! Boy; You still alive down there?" I say quietly but forcefully so it doesn't wake up the other two in the house, and I poke him with my foot. He groans in protest and slowly turns himself over, and I see the extremely bright orange hair of the kid who somehow looks half dead and half asleep at the same time as he stares at me with dumbfounded look in his eyes.

"Who are you?" He asks while stifling a yawn, and then tries to shake the tiredness out of his head. I walk past him into the hall and turn around to face him at its opening, my hands in my pockets and most of the sleepiness gone out of my head.

"I'm Fawkes." I answer him then sigh as he still stands with the same nearly asleep look on his face. "Come on; let's find you a room, then maybe I can go back to sleep after being woken up." I say, then sigh again as he hangs his head and mutter something I couldn't hear, I ignore it as being unimportant for the time being and walk down the hallway, poking my head into bedrooms as I go along.

In the room right next to mine, a dark colored pile of long hair covers the pillow at the head of the bed. 'That must be the girl who the pink boots belong to' I think as I quietly back my head around the door jam and shut the door, twisting the knob so it wouldn't click as I closed it. Then the second room had a boy about my age laid out on the floor with half the blankets off the bed laying on him. The other have still lay on the edge of the bed. I snicker quietly then leave that room, shutting the door all the same, the third room I poked my head into had Instructor McGrath lying on the bed. Awake and reading something out of a folder under the red light of a night time flashlight. He looks up from it, sees me, then closes the folder and turns the light off before standing up and yawning.

"Why are you awake Fawkes?" he asks me while I still try to figure out why he was there, well… It does make sense that there would be an instructor watching a group of kids like us, it was kind of dumb of me to assume they would just leave us alone in a cabin to ourselves. I nod my head as the boy walks up next to me.

"Just trying to find this kid an empty room, his less than stealthy entrance woke me up." I say, trying not to yawn as I speak, and also try to stay awake as well. McGrath walks over to the door and grabs onto the other boys shoulder to steady the nearly asleep child.

"Go on back to bed; I got this covered. Tomorrow you can meet the other two; they got here just after you must have gone to sleep. I think you might like those two." He says while directing the boy into the last room in the house and I turn around and return to my own room, my brief period of alertness quickly waning away as I approach the comfortable bed, and I was out like a light when I hit the mattress.

My alarm woke me up at exactly eight o'clock in the morning, and I feel completely rested, even after that late night escapade.

I hop out of bed and go take a quick, blazingly hot shower, then throw on a set of forest camouflaged pants and a plain black shirt before I walk from my room and enter the front living room.

Rolled up into a ball on the couch was the same girl from the night before, her face hidden in her knees, she wore a set of black colored sweat pants and a sky blue colored shirt with a star league emblem on the back of it. And in the armchair next to the fire place was instructor McGrath. Still as awake looking as the night before, wearing his pressed officers suit, displaying the shiny gold bars and turquoise particle cannon bursts of a lieutenant instructor, as well as a silver star placed on top of a small Knights sword.

I grab a spot on the L shaped part of the sofa next to the girl and look at the television, the Atreus planetary news playing across the slightly transparent holographic screen. I wait for the other two boys to get up and come out to the living room.

"The other two are going to be asleep for a while longer, I shut their alarms off because they both got here really late. Miala over there got here an hour after you did about ten or so, and Hail got here at around one in the morning, and Niels got here at three so I turned off their alarms to let them sleep. Compared to those two, you and Miala live right next door to the training camp, they both lived on different continents than the Athena combat school." McGrath says quietly, trying not to wake up the sleeping girl next to me. I nod in recognition and turn my eyes back to the television.

A few moments later, the red haired kid stumbles out of the hallway, wearing a grey fur lined parka and black jeans. He walks three steps out of the hall, and then falls down flat on his face. It seems that he's a bit clumsy when he's tired.

He stands himself back up then walks to the sofa and sits at the far end, rolling himself into a ball not all that dissimilar to the one the girl, Miala; has herself rolled into. Then he promptly falls back into a lighter sleep, shortly later, the last boy, Hail; walks from the hallway. Fully awake and dressed in the winter camouflaged version of what I was wearing, and he had a brown heavy canvas parka with a fox fur lining folded up in his hands. He looks up at me and smiles brightly.

"Hello, you must be Fawkes; I'm Hail Collems, Nice to meet you." He says while sitting in the empty space of the sofa, and then looks at the two sleeping kids and sighs.

"Instructor McGrath… Can I wake up these two sleepers?" Hail mischievously asks, a little twinkle in his eye showing he was going to do something embarrassing for the rest of us to wake them up.

"Go for it; and call me Carl, being called instructor McGrath all the time make me feel old, I'm only twenty three." Carl says, looking away from the news to the sofa, and smiling at the childish antics soon to come.

Hail stands up, and then claps his hands once, louder than physically possible with hands that small.

Miala immediately wakes up with a quick shout of "I'm awake!" and then blushes in embarrassment.

While Niels flies from the sofa and smacks face first into the ground, once again providing a hearty laugh for the rest of us.

Once he recovered, we all ate simple MRE meals, just to save time that we already wasted by sitting around. Then we all headed to the parade grounds were all of the new MechWarrior trainees were being welcomed.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the murmurings and glares we were getting from the older, more aggressive looking men and women in the growing crowd. The second thing I noticed, which confused me a lot, we are the only kids there.

After a long and boring speech about how the protection of the free world's league and its entire people are up to us MechWarrior's, the rest of the cadets split off to wherever they were before coming here. My little group was also making its way back to the cabin, but not before I caught a disturbing conversation between two of the oldest looking trainees, both large men, looking to be in there early 40's. Even older than our instructor… what they were saying really bothers me.

"Hn. It's disgusting, using children to do a job those men should be doing, and even giving them their own quarters. Those arrogant brats are going to die." The smaller of the two says to the larger, grey looking man. Who replies with a sharp "Shut up. You're going to get us in a lot of trouble talking that way; I hate them as well, thinking there better than us. Getting special privileges' They WILL get theirs." I pale at the man's weakly disguised threat, and feel instructor McGraths hand clench my shoulder and steer me away from the area, pushing me faster than we were moving before. He must have heard it too; at least I know he will try to keep them away from us.

We soon reach the cabin and go back inside of its warmth. We all congregate into the living room and spread out on the couch, McGrath takes the arm chair again, and we all pretty much sit the same way we did before, almost like un-official assigned seating. Once we were all settled in, Instructor McGrath passes around a box with heavy brass pins in it; each one a named Star tipped Knights long sword with a blue ppc burst on each side of it, all set on top of a house Marik eagle, with the words _Equitum Sidereus _laser scribed into the purple painted eagles tail.

Each one of us took the ones with our names on them and I held mine in my hand, wondering at its marvel. I am so focused on it I almost miss the little speech from instructor McGrath.

"You are the Knights starlight, a new mech lance assembled for the protection of the inner sphere from the clans, pirates, and the periphery. Be proud of who you are, you are a new breed of MechWarrior's, and will from this day forth, begin training to protect and serve for the safety of the inner sphere." He says, a proud crescendo in his voice as he announces it, the four of us look up to him in awe, and I feel in my heart that what he said will be true. His words are what I truly believe in, peace and safety in the inner sphere.

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**That's all for now folks, 2100 words, longest chapter yet I'd have to say, review this. I like them. At some point I will set up a picture of the knights starlight pin, and when I do I will post it up to take a gander at by you people. i may at some point make references to roguebaron and ulquiorra9000's mechwarrior works, namely ulquiorra's prodigies and baron's Ikerensky series, just tidbits. I'm purposefully trying to write this so it doesn't directly relate with either's timeline in most parts of it, but in this, to think of a time frame of whats going on in the rest of the universe while the training is happening post op-bulldog the clanners make a prodigy-esque uprising. that is all, and yes, this can be considered free advertising for the prodigies and ikerensky, read them, review them. you wont be disappointed. at this point at the very beginning of training, is about... oooh a good 3 quarters through the prodigies storyline in timeframe for the rest of the universe, thinking that other shit is going on in the universe in this way helps me write. if either of you two authors dont like it. them may you go men in black style and mind wipe me. Ill try to keep direct references to a bare minimum. and read of the newer bits of your works at some point...**

** Have i told you yet that i absolutely fucking hate the cold? **


	4. Into every life new adventure awaits

Equitum Sidereus chapter 4

**AUTHORS NOTE- IT'S GETTING COLDER! Can you believe this shit? I mean it was warm for like 3 days; In California of course, land of sunshine and shit, earthquakes radiation and tiny tsunamis. God rest those lost to the earth in Japan, that bitch will get hers someday. **

**Well here we go again, I hope you guys read these author notes, because eventually I'm going to sneak important stuff here to throw you off. And if more people don't vote on the poll, I'm going to do whatever I choose to do.**

**Originally this chapter was going to be posted in late February, and only include the after two year's later section. I fully intend to kill this story and maybe start a sequel after chapter 20, maybe I will continue pripyats cry at some point, but that's not for a while; I got inspired to continue writing this chapter because of the music from the crew over at OCremix. **

**By the way, is it weird that my main character seems to have an addiction to root beer? Aahh root beer… wait a minute I'll be right back… **

""**Dialogue/ writing (in bold)**

THREE WEEKS LATER

I wake to the blaring din of my alarm clock, then jump out of bed. I am eager to start the day today, even the boring part were we are all forced to sit through classes to learn all about tactics, military etiquette, and various jabber that doesn't interest me in the least. I can't wait until I get to see the mechs again.

Pulling on a coat and some insulated winter forest camouflaged pants I stumble out of my room and into the kitchen in the back. Where Instructor McGrath stands over a sizzling cast iron pan, I sniff the air and decide he is either doing something odd to the pan or cooking something I do not recognize. Deciding not to question it and just see if everyone else is awake I grab a bottle of root beer out of the refrigerator and find my way to the living room. To see as always, Hale being the only other kid awake before me. Sometimes I have to wonder if he even really ever sleeps.

"Morn'n." I yawn out as I grab the space in the couch I always sit in, and pull the cap off the bottle of root beer using the buckle of my belt, nothing better in my opinion than a good root beer first thing in the morning. "Not even six am and you're already drinking all of that sugar? Why not try tea or something not soda for once?" Hale asks before picking up a bottle of pineapple juice, and downing the bit that was left in it. I scoff at this bit off hypocrisy and decide to call him out on it.

"Your one to talk, that stuff you drink is almost pure sugar by my standards. Besides I like root beer, it makes me happy." I smile as I finish talking and return to enjoying the carmely sweet goodness that is ATLAS root beer.

"Ok I get your point; I'll let you win this round… I wonder what concoction McGrath is burning in there. Never smelled anything like it or seen anything like it either… What in god's name has gravy in it that you would eat in the morning?" Hale asks after conceiting to defeat once again. Moments later Miala shuffles into the room, half asleep and still wrapped to her neck in a gigantic puffy comforter.

"Morn." She sleepily says before loping over the couch and piling onto it next to me. I wonder if she sleeps too, why else would she be completely dead tired every morning when the rest of us are usually ready to go early on.

"You should go to bed earlier if you're going to be this tired every morning. It's not good for you, almost as bad as me and hale's sugar intake and Nils's falling over himself." I jokingly say as I nudge the giant blanket off of my section of the couch. I fall over on the couch as she suddenly jumps on top of me in retaliation; somehow still keeping the blanket wrapped the exact same way.

"Shut up or I'll sleep right here and not let you get up." She says happily, telling me that I probably should shut up but… nah I think I'm in the mood to play this through to see what happens. I move around to try and get my arms out from under her so I can shove her off but to no avail. She has me trapped… I look over to Hale for some assistance.

"Sorry man; you're the one who got himself into this, so you're the one getting you out of it, besides this is funny." He replies while shaking his head and smirking. He must find this oh so incredibly funny to see me humiliated like this.

"I hate you…" I seethe to him and then increase the fervor of my struggle till I work my arms out from under the laughing evil girl on top of me. I then shove her off of me and onto the arm of the couch. I quickly roll away from her so she can't jump on top of me again and stick my tongue out at her in a move of immaturity that would certainly be expected of this situation."So, that's what you kids do when I'm not around to watch you!" Instructor McGrath's voice booms in a teasing tone, my neck heats in response to the embarrassment I feel. "N-No! Well not usually but…" I draw off, my embarrassment rising as I notice the jolly jokester like smirk coming from the instructor.

"I'm just playing with you. Come on, I got something brewing in my cauldron that I want you guys to try. I think you're going to like it." He says while ushering us into the kitchen, five steaming plates of meat filled white gravy on top of some kind of biscuit sits on the counter.

"Um… What is it?" I ask, looking at it and trying to remember if I had eaten anything similar to it at any point. "It's biscuits and gravy, with a spicy sausage in it. Just eat it; we do not have a lot of time left to mess around today. The academy is having a parade for all of last year's graduates, so we gotta go. I'm going to wake up the sleeping one and tell him to get moving fast." He answers before turning and walking from the room to wake up Niles.

Once Niles is ready, we quickly find our way out of the residential section and to the parade grounds, were the parade was just beginning.

Hundreds of people in tanks, a few in sets of steel medieval knights armor and a fair portion of mechs trot around the parade grounds. I look on at the huge congregation in respectful awe before I see something I haven't seen before.

Several very large men standing on the back of a flat bed mech transport, the transport flanked by _Black knight _mechs with what looks armed robots sitting on their shoulders and hanging from the torso of the mechs. "Who are they?" I ask, pointing at the seven foot tall men and the robots on the _Black knight's_.

"Those are our legionnaires, the Battle armor units of our company. They actually stay at the academy instead of branching out to parts unknown so they can be ready on demand at any time. The Battle armor hanging from the battlemechs is Longinus heavy battle armor, new design helped out by the friendly scientists over at Comstar" He finished his speech, answering all of the questions I didn't even have to ask, and giving me more information than I thought I would get.

"So they are part of the Starlight?" Niles asks whilst standing on his toes to get a better view of everyone in the parade.

"Essentially yes; you see once we deploy after you guys are all ready to go they will be coming with us to keep any battle armor we run into off of your mechs." McGrath explains while we all watched the final procession of mechs in the path stomp off at a slow pace, the house Marick flag waving on the back of a black knight as it steps through the massive iron portcullis of the parade grounds walls.

TWO YEARS LATER MECH TRAINING SECTOR 7 LOWLAND HILLS.

I stomped out of the _Archeus _union class drop ship and onto the soft grass of the hill covered terrain. The _Highlander_ belonging exclusively to the knights starlight training division, was quickly becoming one of my favorite Mech to stomp around in. and so it was also the one I chose today for the simple accuracy exercise we are carrying out, having its load out set for only a targeting laser and two light gauss rifles, it wasn't going to pack to much of a punch. But it is enough for what I'm using it for.

"Heckler; you can go now, bring the _Archeus_ to waypoint Charlie, this shouldn't take too long." I say over the radio in the helmet I have strapped onto my head. Then I flip up a large toggle switch on the side of the helmet, a wave of nausea comes over me as the neural interface connects with my mind, the mech instantly steadies, and the onboard computer reads off a series of checklists, confirming that the mech wasn't going to blow up on me.

"Lance leader; what's the plan?" Niles voice asks over the radio, his huge ca_tapult _coming to rest beside me. The missile pods locked closed with thick plates keeping dust out of them.

"Just cut a few holes in the tanks on the way to Charlie, then get in the drop ship and go back to command. This is probably one of the last exercises they're going to have us do before tossing us out to do some real training." I answer, slowly accelerating my mech until it was going a steady stomp of 65kph, Niles matches my speed and we soon crest the first hilltop.

"Lead; this is support, going weapons hot." Niels shouts over the radio, I look over to his mech, and watch him flick the giant arming toggle for the two lrm 20- thunder warhead missile launchers. The two meal plates lift up, and then slide back to rest above the launchers and out of the way.

I release my own weapon safeties and prepare my mech to fire. The two light gauss systems arm and the targeting laser flicks to life. The computer bleeps in acknowledgement at having the weapons ready to fire. My radar bleeps as it reads the images coming from the six disabled myrmidon tanks spread throughout the valley below the hill, as well as the radar signatures of three aerospace fighters flying towards us from the east.

"Aerospace fighters? Support; target those aircraft and ping them for Iff. We're supposed to be the only ones out here; hopefully they're just doing a flyby to take a look at what we're up to. " I say, wondering out loud about the fighters approaching us.

"Got it… err, IFF tag received. They're from the academy, unarmed. The IFF has a message tagged to it, sending it your way." Niels says, a simple order flashes across my heads up display, reading **"Training for today cancelled, emergency situation class-delta, all trainees return to your drop ships and report to commanding officers for orders concerning the situation, order under Atreus academy president/ advisory general Kayon Minerva, all inactive units report to the nearest command post for further information." **I sigh and cancel out the message, well this sucks. I didn't even get to shoot anything today, the emergency is probably just someone got lost somewhere and the recruits are going to get sent to look for them in scout mechs again.

"Niels drop the dust covers on your missiles, weapons cool. We gotta go to the drop ship; some jerk messed up and got us a new job. This is happening a lot lately don't you think?" I say over the radio, disabling my radar system and the weapons computer. I point my mech to the south directly at waypoint Charlie and set the autopilot to stomp me over there at 75kph.

"Yeah, must be some problem with the navigational systems. Comstar was supposed to start sending out new nav data a couple of months ago; Strange that they didn't, usually there spot on with their work. Ya know, maybe something's going on that they're not telling us." Niels says as the dust covers for his missiles lock back into place. His mech quickly catches up with me, pulling alongside me he looks over waiting for a reply to his last sentence.

"I don't even want to think of any weird shit happening, excuse my language. But the last time something weird like that happened, the clanners came to town and taught us how inferior our technology really was. That's not something we want happening again." I say, thinking back on all of the old news reports from the clan wars my father used to read aloud to us at the breakfast table. What if something big was going on, that's something I don't want to think about.

I pull the _Archeus's_ radio channel up and send a signal telling the pilot of the ship to warm up the fusion drives so we could scoot out of there the moment we arrived, and laid back in my command couch.

It doesn't seem like I'm getting much learning in since I graduated from the officer school. This was supposed to be the first uninterrupted practice since then, and the officer school was all paperwork and pencil pushing, not my kind of work at all. Now this pops up, taking away from my practice and leaving me itching to destroy something.

We soon arrive at the _Archeus _and quickly shuffle the two mechs into its mechbay, then take off staying in our mechs for the short twenty five minute flight back to the training camp. When we arrive, we immediately pull the mechs from the drop ship and walk them back to their mech hanger. When Niels and I depart the mech hangar, instructor McGrath is waiting for us in a fully armed _Moltke _main battle tank.

"Get in; there has been a situation. I will explain on the way." He hurridly orders Niels and myself into the tank, which quickly rolls off the grounds of the main training center, onto the main military highway. The highway is packed with military equipment moving at an almost frantic pace towards the direction of the spaceport.

"Carl!" I shout to McGrath over the deep rumble of the tanks huge treads crunching against the pavement below it. "What the hell's going on?" The huge movement of heavy military Armor is really starting to worry me, Niels Might be right, something bad happened, something really bad.

"A large force of organized space pirates has been raiding planets on the outer shield of the free world's league. They have captured _Hammer_, and we know that there main base is on the planet of _Tarminn_ in the periphery. Most of this force is heading to _Hammer_ to liberate it from the pirates, but we are going to the periphery to hit them in their heartland. As well as tear them off of any planets they have taken on their way Into the sphere." He says over the constant rumble of the tank, we are almost at the spaceport. We soon pass the now open military access doors of the spaceports massive security walls, then head towards a grouping of drop-ships bearing the Knights starlight insignia.

There was a giant conquistador troop ship, a large force of Union class drop ships and two Hannibal class drop-ships. This wasn't a normal force that could be carried by the average free worlds league jump ship, this is an armada.

The tank rolls into one of the waiting _Hannibal's, _one names _Summers dawn _. McGrath, Niels and I dismount from it and step onto the steel decking of the ship. We are quickly ushered to the command center onboard the _Summer_ by a waiting pair of technical officers, when we arrive Miala and Hale were there to meet us.

The _summer_ takes off and docks with a new ship that is of a design I've never seen before. It bears the name _Equitum Sidereus-01;_ it must be the Knights starlight jumpship. A Battleship and two destroyers flank it as it floats orbiting Atreus.

"Wow, Is this our new ship?" Miala asks in awe. The rest of us just shuffle through the airlock as we look on at the shiny new titanium plating that makes up the interior of the ship.

"Yes, this is a new, experimental prototype from Atreus's shipyards. Capable of multiple jumps before requiring a solar recharge. It is also the only multirole jump ship in the FWL arsenal, being that it is armed as an assault class battleship, carrying a forward mounted dual coil assist 600 millimeter hypervelocity Rail gun, and twelve naval ppc's as its primary weapons." McGrath says as we reach the elevator to the bridge level of the ship.

"Yes… I am quite proud that I am assigned to operate this fine piece of naval technology." Comes a voice I haven't heard since the days of naval tactics and small arms training in the space station.

"Instructor Tallow! You're going to command the jump ship?" I say as I eagerly greet the aged instructor. He hasn't changed at all in the two years since I started out my journey as a mech officer.

"That's captain Tallow to you cadet officer." He says in mock seriousness before breaking into laughter.

"It's nice to see you, sir. It's been ages since we were in the space station learning from you, really puts my mind at ease to see that you're going to be our captain." I say to him as the elevator reaches the center of the ship, the long flat corridor containing all of the ships operational equipment and the end of which contained the bridge itself, a massive thick sheet of Plexiglas separating the pressurized deck from the hostile vacuum of space.

As we walk towards the bridge section of the command deck, various technicians begin to start up their personal work terminals; a hollow whine of the reactor in the ship starting up comes to meet everyone's ears.

Captain Tallow takes his seat in the command couch for the ship captain, perched directly in front of it a massive hologram screen showing the map of the Atreus system, with every single space borne craft noted in green blocks of different sizes.

"Alright crew. Let's see what this boat can do!" Tallow announces as he taps in a series of password commands, undocking the jump ship from the space station. The ship drifts away from the station propelled by small thrusters located on its belly, and as soon as the ship was far enough away; Tallow orders the jump engine to be test fired, a whitish colored block of space generates just in front of the nose of the ship, and swirling light blue vortices coalesce inside of the wormhole.

We drift into it, marking two great moments that change my life, my first jump ship jump, and the beginning of the real knight's starlight.

A quote from an old codex from the clanners' ilkahn history comes to my mind at the event "Though the stars bear much pain, the will of humanity to branch out and adventure is too great for it to be anything but extraordinary for those who are to appreciate it. For once man has ventured out of his shell, an entire universe of discovery and strength awaits him."


	5. Planet fall,beginning my history of war

Equitum Sidereus chapter 5

**Changed the rating to m because of the gore this will end up at some point leading to. precaution... maybe even a preemptive strike...**

**I'm going to start going a cut off in this stories timeline, sorry if you don't like it but I got places to get. And frankly, I wing this whole thing, so im still trying to see where this stories going to go. But the ideas ive had which cant really be implemented untill later are most epic. and once I reach the beginning of the prologue around chapter 20, this story will end and there WILL Be a sequel! **

**Oh and I think I've found a song to use as a them to this shit like how anime always has music at the title scene… **

**And as a final note, anything with A * will be defined in the post script at the end of the chapter. **

**Disclaimer: did I ever put one of there up? I don't really think anyone cares anyway…**

* * *

As the jump-ship flies through space at an incredible speed, its escort Warships the _Agamemnon _class battleship _GRWYRE-10 _and the _Thera _class carrier _Delphi_ flanking it as it whips through the open expanses towards the periphery.

It has been three weeks since the mission to defeat the raiders at their home planet, dubbed operation zealot began, and we were soon to arrive within the hour.

Tensions in the crew were high as we quickly assembled six lances of battlemechs, and three squadrons of battle armor, as well as two battalions of heavy tanks. The plan is to discreetly send in three lances of battlemechs, including my lance, along with the battle armor to destroy any planetary defense systems. Then the other three lances of 'mechs and tanks to clean up any resistance and destroy all of the military manufacturing on the planet.

At least that was what the plan was. As soon as the ships dropped out of the KF space the enemy was there to meet us.

Three squadrons of fighters from the _Delphi_ engaged an armada of aerospace fighters, debris and clouds of smoke from the engines of missiles crowds the space around the _Sidereus _as the drop ships carrying the three mech lances, and the _Conquistador _crash through the atmosphere of the planet.

"Okay! _Gryphon one _to all Gryphonunits prepare yourselves to drop. Weapons hot! I repeat weapons hot!" McGraths voice flairs over the radio; I palm the security pad on the _Highlanders_ control panel, its reactor spinning to life with a low whine. The computer goes through its normal startup checklists, and I flip the toggle switch to drop the safeties on my weapons.

The Union class drop ship hits the ground with a sharp Shake that throws me around my cockpit, It's weapons blazing to life with a series of shallow cracks and sharp whines of capacitors charging, heavy gauss rifles firing in unison with the ER-large lasers shake the drop ship and warm its massive heat sinks.

"Ready! GO! GO! GO!" McGrath yells as the long ramp lowers down, the light from the outside streaming in. I push my mech forward in a slow acceleration out into the light just behind McGraths _Black knight. _As we hit the outside immediately a gauss rifle round flies from the right arm of the _Black Knight_ its large slug tearing an arm off of a _Supernova_ damaged by the fire from the drop ship.

The _conquistador _screams overhead, its Rotary auto cannons and large pulse lasers tearing a _Brigand _and a _Sentinel _apart. Its cargo bay open, with armored soldiers jumping out, disposable _HALO _jump packs slowing there descent, all of them detach the packs while still high up and crash down to the ground creating dust clouds where the land.

"Holy shit! Those boys are crazy! _Zion_ One to _Gryphon_ lance, ya see those AA laser towers to the east? That's our target; the _Conquistador_ will provide support while we take them out." The pilot of a _Gladiator _Assault mech shouts over the Staccato din of the battle raging around us.

"Support 'mechs, hang back and start throwing your LRM'S at the closest tower as soon as your within targeting range, Lambda lance; send those assaults to the gate to the city those damned laser towers." He says while throwing an LBX/AC20 into the cockpit of another brigand.

I form up behind Instructor McGrath as the procession of 'mechs forms up and begins to move towards a thick furrocrete gate to the capital city of the enemy. Minutes seem to last forever as the slow assault 'mechs, a _Fafnir _and _Marauder 11c _make their way to the tower and begin to launch Heavy gauss, PPC's, and the kicker that tears the doors off its massive hydraulic piling locks, a massive rail gun slug from the _Marauder._

"Alright! Good job. Now gryphon lance move up to engage the enemy guards in the streets. Support mech; Hammer the city, my lance is going to move up to… holy shit! HOLD UP! LAMBDA BACK AWAY FROM THE DOORS! THE WALL IS…" My radar blares in warning only once before a massive explosion overtakes the section of the wall, swallowing the two 'mechs in a massive ball of fire… their pilots having no chance to eject.

"Jesus… Ok, back away from the gate. We have to wait for the smoke to clear out before we engage the city… son of a bitch, reactor from the _Fafnir _is going critical. It's going to blow, back up quick!" Zion one says shakily, backing his mech up with its weapons facing the gate area. I push my mech into reverse as fast as I can, and bring it to crouch behind the wreckage of an atlas as the reactor of the _Fafnir_ erupts in a massive shockwave and a dome of light and superheated air.

"Holy shit! That's not supposed to happen is it?" Hale asks while standing his crouched _Black Knight _back up from behind a huge Hedgehog* laid into the furrocrete outside of the city, he stomps the 'mech back in line with the others, forming into a loose column formation.

"No, not really, but so far we have been extremely lucky down here. Something's wrong; why the hell do they have so many inner sphere battlemechs? And why do they seem to know we were coming? I'm calling this situation Charlie foxtrot pull back to the landing ground. We're going to have to wait for reinforcements." Zion one says as he spins his _Gladiator _around and pushes it off towards the waiting drop ships, the group of 'mechs stomping off with him. I turn my head to find my friends and teammates, seeing Hale and McGrath on my left and on my right Nils in a _catapult_ and Miala in an _AS7-D-H Atlas II v_ariant of the _Atlas. _This one taken as salvage from a battle during operation bulldog, requisitioned for my units uses.

"Status?" I ask while pushing my mech towards the drop ships. Looking on towards the now hovering _Conquistador _and the quickly constructed mobile field base in the area, the fighting around the drop ships completely finished by the time we made off towards the wall.

" One; ready-op." McGrath responds, all traces of his normally casual speech staunched by a gruff professionalism.

"Three; ready-op." Hale responds twisting his torso to look over at me, and to allow me to see his 'mech.

"Four; ready for more." Niels replies with his normal joke filled banter, idiot doesn't know when it's time to stop does he.

"Five; I'm ice boy's" Miala replies, spinning up the Rotary auto cannon resembling a giant Gatling gun attacked to the _Atlas II's_ right arm. Seems the stress of combat hasn't gotten to her yet. Good, seriousness isn't her way and wouldn't feel right.

"Alright; were all good then. Head over to the drop-ship but leave your 'mechs on standby in case they need to be hot started." I say, taking command from McGrath without even thinking about it. He activates a private video link to my mech and scowls at me.

"I thought I was in command here. What are you doing?" He says, chastising me on my choice of stealing his command.

"Sorry, didn't think about it. Force of habit under stress, guarantee you it will happen again. Just go along with it, I did go to school for this." I say, ignoring the exasperated face he is giving me. I pull my mech up next to the drop-ship and lock the computer so I can leave the reactor running.

After stepping out of my mech and climbing down the ladder I make my way to the command mobile field base were several officers are arguing over the need for reinforcements from the main army at _Hammer,_ and one even suggesting to contact the new star league defense force, just to quickly have his idea shot down by the other commanders.

"I have an idea!" I shout over the yelling of the older men and one woman in the tank-like mobile field base. I walk in, nearly crushed by the weight of the others stares.

"Who the hell are you kid? Officers only, and nobody really cares if you had an idea or not."One large older looking MechWarrior with a scar running across his chin says, a frown forming at his face when I don't turn around and leave.

"Yeah… Fuck you old ass man, I don't give a shit if you care or not. If you haven't figured it out yet, for all intents and purposes, the ship we came here in belongs to me and my team. So I am entitled to speak my mind about whatever I want, as well as you being entitled to not give a fuck. So here's my plan, we use the battle armor to…" I start but am cut off as a fist hits my face and throws me from the _MFB_. I stand myself up shakily and wipe the blood from my swollen cheek. The large man I insulted walks from the _MFB_ towards me with an infuriating smug look on his face.

He stops a few feet away from me and looks down at me in disgust, wiping my blood from his knuckles he shakes his head in contempt.

"Who the fuck do you think you are kid? talking to a superior officer like that, I ought to put you up for a court martial for that. Instead I think I will just beat you down a few notches" he cracks his knuckles and steps closer to me, attempting to use his size to make it so I couldn't even defend myself, against the yells of the other officers he throws his fist at me.

I yell vehemently as I roll out of the path of his fist, and pull a spear point bladed ceramic CQB knife from a sheath on my belt. Without hesitating I fall back on the training in hand to hand combat given to all of the Knights. I spin the blade in my hand so it points away from my body, and in one quick sweep, I slide it through the man's gut, then with an angry yell slam the blade into his chest. The other officers look on in shock as the man falls to the ground in a spray of blood, covering me from head to toe in spots.

"J-Jesus, that kid just killed him." One of the Officers says while walking slowly towards me and the Mech warrior's body.

I step on his chest and use my body to lever my knife out of him, more blood soaking his grey shirt as I do, then walk back towards the drop ship where my mech and my teammates standing around a fire in a grease barrel are all gathered.

McGrath looks up from the fire then stands from his impromptu gauss slug box seat and rushes over to me with a concerned look on his face.

"Fawkes… oh shit look at you… wha- what happened?" he hurriedly stumbles over his words. I walk past him to my mech, dropping my knife on the way over I crawl back into the cockpit, momentarily in my unstable mind considering turning around and hosing the _MFB_ with auto cannon fire, I quickly discard those thoughts and frown at myself in anger and disgust. Disgust over what I just did, anger at being pushed to do something like what I did.

A tear washes the blood from my face as I curl up into a ball in my cockpit and slowly cry to myself. The video link to McGraths mech blinks to life on the heads up display. Upon seeing me, the look of concern deepens.

"This is the first time you've killed someone isn't it?" I nod in reply, two fine lines of clean skin showing through my bloodied face.

"I see… It couldn't have been under worst circumstances either. Listen to me… you did the right thing. He would have hurt, or even killed you otherwise. No one is going to look down on you or punish you in anyway. That man was Karlyle Moylag , he wasn't a good person in the first place, he was one step away from being executed anyway. How he ended up here without anyone stopping him is a mystery to me, he was charge with a war crime during the trials after operation bulldog, and was sentenced to exile from the league. He was a criminal, and don't let anyone let you think different. Now come down to the fire, your friends are worried about you." He finishes and cuts the link to the video, and I start wiping blood off of my face on the sleeve of my shirt.

I change my shirt out with an extra one I had stuffed into a compartment in the cockpit. Then climb back to the fire and sit between Miala and Hale on a log drug up towards to the fire. I tense for a moment as I feel Miala hug me, then relax, telling her I will be fine. I will be fine, I have to be to make sure the same thing doesn't have to happen to her, to Hale, to any of them.

* * *

**Alrighty then, remember, review this bitch if you read it, I write faster if I have more reviews and suggestions to work off of. Im going to close the poll on my profile in a few days because at this point it doesn't even matter. And heres for the definitions **

**area**

**HEDGEHOG: **The **Czech hedgehog** was a static anti-tank obstacle defence made of angle iron (that is, lengths with an L- shaped cross section) deployed during World War II by various combatants.

The hedgehog is very effective in keeping tanks from getting through a line of defence. It maintains its function even when tipped over by a nearby explosion.

That is all. Carry on.


	6. An acrid black smoke called war

Author notes:**I'm back with another chapter, been a bit busy lately so my apologies if I've left my… what is it now 3 readers high and dry… oh but here I am with another chapter. OH and im not sure if ive gone through this yet but fawks is about 13 at this time. And pirate operations will span about three years, with various skips throughout. now read, and if you read, review. Ask questions,they will be answered. I don't bite… I may bark though… just a warning… **

I awoke to the sound of more dropships landing, and the almost constant din of distant combat with the patrols guarding the impromptu base camp.

Getting out of the makeshift bed made from a sheet of leg armor off a _black knight _and a pile of blankets, I hop off the thick plate and dig around in my giant duffel bag for my box of 12 milimeter antipersonnel handgun rounds and my pistol belt.

Already dressed from the night before after destroying my bloodied combat clothes, I now don a set of multicam pants and a green coolant vest flak jacket as well as my Issue pistol, an excessively large and inconveniently shaped firearm that was almost too large for me to hold , I struggle with the large handgun as I strip the massive magazine out of it and fill it with bullets as I walk out of the dropship. Finishing the loading I slip the magazine back into the gun and slide the whole contraption back into its holster.

Outside of the dropship, everything was a rush of movement. The battle armor troops moving large boxes out of the freshly landed dropships and the mechwarriors from the drop ships pulling the various death machines into the hastily built scaffolding mechbays, I walk over to a trashcan fire were the rest of the mechwarriors are sitting, uttering my good mornings as I move to sit with my team.

"So they sent reinforcements?" I ask McGrath as I sit down in my customary spot next to Maila.

"Yeah, only because we lost the assault mechs yesterday, fleet com has a plan for how we're going to wipe out this planet, and I'm not so sure it's the best of Plans but we are going along with it anyway. Get something to eat guys we have a meeting with the reinforcements from the special operations command in an hour." McGrath answers with a weary smile as Maila leans on my shoulder.

"You know… you two are awfully close. If I was a wiser man I would say something is going o" I interrupt him by shaking my head, a similarly weary, almost worn out smile on my face.

"Sir, we really don't have time to discuss such matters while on a mission. I neither confirm nor deny your claims but its personal." I answer with a mischievous smirk. Giving Maila a bit of a gentle shove to let me stand up,she moves with a little hesitation and I get up to go get my team the various edible goodies we stash in our personal dropship.

Coming back with the MRE's and my the beverages of choice, rootbeer ,pinaple, grapefruit juice, and orange soda I distribute the food and we all eat in relative silence untill Hale breaks the silence with a small chuckle.

"I still don't understand how you and Niles can drink soda first thing in the morning, and how you can keep from being hyper as a drugged fox with your sugar intake." He says still slightly chuckling.

"Simple, I enjoy rootbeer so I drink it… A lot. Also the only reason I'm not hyper is because I don't believe in hyperactivity. Nils likes his orange soda just as much as I like my Rootbeer, and he is long range artillery, so moving and thinking very quickly is important for him." I rebut his bit of scolding as I down the rest of my cereal based MRE and toss the package off into the fire pit behind me.

Waiting for everyone else to finish, I pick the flakes of blood out of my knives serrated edge, letting it chip off and land on the table. A sad frown momentarily twitching its way onto my face, I quickly suppress those feelings so I wouldn't worry my friends.

I stand up and walk off towards the _MFB_, my group of friends rushing forward to join me on the way there. "Meetings with this old warhawks always seems like a bigger waste of time than anything." Nils comments as he jaunts up beside me.

"Yeah, it's not like their plans are going to work once we hit the ground anyway." Hale says while playing with his PDA, something he is doing more and more these days.

"Yeah, just keep your heads and we will get through this crap as best we can. Though I don't really like letting the brass that isn't out on the field tell us how to get the job done." I say as we start to walk up into the mobile field base. A power armored soldier stopping us at the door and taking our weapons from us, we enter the huge armored vehicle to receive our orders.

Once we entered the command and control room the field marshal and McGrath meet us around a large holographic battle map showing the entire eastern hemisphere of the planet. A large red circle surrounding the enemy base, I think they are trying to finish this war in one strike by the way the map looks.

"Alright, now that we're all here, Fawks Crawly; I hereby promote you to Knights lance leader, and McGrath; under orders of the special operation command you are now the brigadier general for lances zulu, alpine and the knights." As he finishes he hands out boxes with rank medallions to McGrath and me.

"Now, your mission for the next few weeks is to assault the city that we were unable to enter yesterday. Your teams will have full close air support from three companies of fighters, two companies of gunships, a company of stiletto bombers, and the conquistador. You will be supported by artillery and anti infantry support from two squads of battle armor, your main objective, as it was before was to capture the space port and disable the defense grid so we can land a few more companies of mech's and stage and assault on the enemies main base of operations in this sector. Your mech's are ready to go and all of the pieces are in place. The operation will start when you are within 300 km of the city walls, then the stilettos will cluster bomb the first 15 blocks of the city, and the conquistador will fell the wall so you can move in safely, from there I leave the attack up to your discretion. Get out there, be careful and get the job done." He finishes telling us our orders with a salute, I return the salute and walk out to the guard to retrieve my knife and pistol.

The teams that are going into the city all assemble and head to their mechs, the battle armor troops already arranged in there squads ready to latch onto the mechs, I climb into my _Highlanders _cockpit and start the computer system up, releasing the security locks on my already running reactor, and stomp off towards the edge of the base. Two of the battle armor units latching on as my mech stomps off.

As the rest of the mechs arrive at the edge of the base we all stomp off towards the staging point, two _Gladiators,_ three _Black knights,_ Miala's _Atlas-II, _Niles _catapult, _McGraths new _Hauptmann ,_ and finally one _Wildcat _all move to stop as we arrive at the point 300km away from the city walls.

"Gryphon-one to Reaper squadron we have reached the staging point commence bombing run." McGrath says over the radio, signaling the beginning of the attack, eight stiletto bombers flash over head, raining down high explosive canister munitions on the city, the ground shakes like an earthquake as the first section of the city is nearly flattened by the force.

As the explosion settles two _Diashi assault_ mechs charge from the sections next to the gate, I take aim and begin to squeeze the trigger for the Lbx auto cannon as the two _Diashi _advance. I let off the trigger as the two Assault mechs cockpits burst into flame and the wall behind them turns to dust as the _Conquistador_ flys over head, its forward rotary auto cannons barking as they throw the huge slugs into the walls and the ground.

"Conquistador gunship to ground forces, the road is clear moving on two your targets. I will be flying over head at Thirty thousand kilometers to provide fire support. Over and out." The _Conquistador_ pilot says over the radio as the gunship pulls up to the level of the clouds and disappears from sight.

The mechs move forward through the dust cloud caused by the furrocrete from the wall exploding and we emerge inside of the now crumbling and burning city. Wreckages of burned out and melting mechs litter the streets and buildings sparkle with the heat from thousands of fires.

"Holy shit, those flyboys made a mess." Hale says as his _Blackknight_ accelerates towards my _Highlander _and McGraths _Hauptmann. _I check my heat levels and see my mech slowly crawling up towards the halfway point on the temperature gauge.

"Hey, we have to get out of the hot area, my mechs getting hot fast." I say as I shove the accelerator forward and jog my mech out of the burning area into the cooler less destroyed area of the city. The rest of the mechs following me and the battle armor troops dismounting our mechs and using their jump jets to get on top of the nearby buildings, Jumping from roof to roof watching for infantry as the mechs waltz through the oddly empty streets.

"Gryphon one, I don't like the looks of this, streets are completely bare, not a single mech or tank in the entire city from what I can see." The pilot of the patrolling conquistador radios in as he circles far over head.

"What does the laser tower emplacement area look like?" McGrath asks as he squeezes the _Hauptman_ between the closely arranged buildings, taking care to not allow the feet of his mech smash down on anything that could be hiding an IED .

"Empty, completely empt- wait a minute… what the hell? ELYSE! GET YOUR ARMOR CHECKING THOSE BUILLDINGS NOW! MECH UNITS HAUL ASS THE HELL AWAY FROM THE BUILDINGS. SENSORS JUST CAUGHT A RADIO WAVE SPIKE INDICATIVE OF A CLASS THREE REMOTE DET" The pilot of the conquistador is cut off as the battle armor units jump off of the buildings and latch onto our now reversed mechs.

Frantic radio traffic from the battle armor radios clogging the coms with a single message '**THE BUILDINGS ARE WIRED RUN!' **I throw my _Highlander_ into reverse and force the heavy mech to spin around before gunning the throttle forward to follow the line of mechs retreating back into the destroyed section and out of the gate.

Following just behind the rest of my squad, with McGraths _Hauptmann _just behind me, I break from the thicket of tall office buildings and out into the destroyed section of the city.

A sudden thick voice breaks over all of the other chatter " _**DIE INFIDEL SCUM!**_" time seems to slow as a sharp earthquake like rumble breaks through the city. I jam my accelerator forward and slam my feet down onto the two Jumpjet pedals to try and get out of the _Hauptmann's_ path as it struggles to burst through the buildings. A visible shockwave warps the ground as the city detonates in ward onto itself. Even in the air my heat level spikes to critical and I am forced to dump three quarters of my coolant to stop my reactor from burning up. The acrid smell of burning myomer fibers and flash melting furro fiberous armor meets my nose as the mechs external microphones burn off, the sound of the city crumbling under the mass of thousands of tons of explosives still tearing through my ears loudly.

My mech slams into the ground and its legs buckle under the stress of bearing the brunt of the damage from the explosions. Immediately as I slowly stand my shaking damaged mech up, I already knew the unavoidable truth. Field Operations general Carl McGrath had passed away. He was too close to the city when it went up. For the heat to melt 66% of my rear armor away while I was in the air. He would have been incinerated instantly.

"All lance units… i-is everyone okay?" The lance leader of zulu company asks hesitantly. The radio still quiet as everyone collects themselves. I finnaly open up a radio channel to report my damage as the lone Longinus Battle armor soldier on my mech drops to the ground ahead of me and begins frantically stripping off his smoking and melting armor. As I open the radio channel I also open up a forward port and dump some of the gel refrigerant from my reactor collant system onto the smoking frantic soldier, the gels -450 degree temperature instantly cooling the plates of the armor, cracking them in the process of the fast cool.

"Guys… we… we lost the general. McGrath is gone." I say, trying, but failing, to disguise my sadness. This shit isn't supposed to be happening…

"Damnit! Zulu company, follow me. Were heading back to base." the lance leader of zulu says as he hauls his _Black knight _outside of the gate. Its right leg actuators damage causing a long slow limp in the mechs gait.

"Gryphon lance and all battle armor units… form up as best you can in the square. I'm going to land the Conquistador and pick you guys up. Most of your mechs caught too much damage to make it back to base… dust off in fifteen minutes." The voice of the conquistador's pilot comes over my slowly failing radio.

I carefully kneel my mech onto the ground close enough to get to climb down the ladder on the outside and onto the ground, popping open the door to the cockpit, I look out over my mech. The armor slaging off like a cascading stream as it falls off of the skeleton of the mech in thick globs, the myomer fibers burning into an acrid black fog that is blown away by the wind fueling the fires of the city.

I look down at my burning mech, the access ladder for the cockpit nearly entirely missing, added into the slowly cooling pile of slag coating the feet of my mech and the ground around it. Noticing my predicament, a Battle armor soldier in Achileus scout armor baring the bars of an armored infantry company commander uses his combat claws to drag his way up to me, offering his shoulder as a ride down to the ground.

After we hit the ground, and I am let down off of the armored giants shoulder, he pulls off his helmet, and disengages the locks holding the combat claws onto the armor, letting there half melted parts drop to the ground.

"Thank you MechWarrior. Alta would have burned to death in that armor if you had not sprayed him with refrigerant, you have my gratitude. I'm jumper squads commander Elyse Crow" he says, slowly stripping the highly damaged armor off of his nearly seven foot frame, a middle aged, off white red haired man steps out of the armor, a friendly, yet serious look permenantly plastered on his face.

"I am Fawks Crawly… I guess I'm the company commander for the Knights starlight at this point…" I say, the weariness of the adrenaline wearing off showing in my voice.

"yes.. I see your commander didn't make it out of the blast radius in time, two of my men are attempting to retrieve his body and personal effects so he can receive the proper burial on Atreus. I am sorry, McGrath was a good man, I fought beside his mech lance in the later days of operation bulldog." Elyse says as he leads me over to the now landing Conquistador dropship. A group of tornado power armor equipped men carrying a black body preserving refrigerant box rush out of the conquistador towards the half melted and half buried wreckage of McGraths mech. I want to know of his condition… yet I can't bring myself to look back at his mech, or body. One of the power armored men runs back inside of the conquistador and grabs a medical kit, the red cross visible on the grey paint of his power armor as he runs by, heading back towards McGraths mech, I start thinking over the lessons that this mission should have taught me as I walk into the _Conquistador s_ilently following Elyse and my now somber team. I sit down and think. The only thing coming to my mind "All men are equal in the eyes of war. Some will die, some will live… but those that live will forever be changed by horrors of combat, a life that some view as not even living at all, but just crawling at a slow pace towards deaths door." I still need to hold to my promise I made myself. I wouldn't be one of those people, I won't let my team mates become those people, I couldn't live with myself if I did… there will be time to mourn for McGrath later. For now, I must save my friends from themselves, from the sadness, from the loss, from the war, and save myself.


	7. Hard Landing The end of an arc

Equitum Sidereus chapter 7

**This will be the final chapter of this story line, and I will soon be starting the sequel… as soon as I figure out a title for it. I hope it is satisfactory, if you read it review it!**

"INBOUND INBOUND ANTI AIR ALL UNITS BRACE FOR IMPACT" the pilot of the conquistador yells over the onboard communications of the _Conquistador_, breaking all of the soldiers onboard into a controlled panic.

"FAWKES! What's happening?" a panic stricken Miala screams while latching onto me. I barely feel like I'm even there, like everything around me isn't really even happening.

That stops the instant the leader of the squad of battle armor soldiers that traveled with us into the city rushes into the room we closed ourselves in and tackles us to the floor.

Then the missile hit the ship. A sharp cackling rattle bursts through the decks of the flying vehicle, followed by a series of explosions and then nothing as my vision fades to black.

"GO! GO! GO!, McCall shoot your damn weapon!" is the first thing I hear as I open my eyes, the acrid scent of burning metal and electronics filling my nostrils as I cough up a lung, Stiffening in pain as I do so.

"Fawkes! Don't talk you've had a few ribs broken in the crash!" a growling yell of "DIE INFIDEL SCUM!" interrupts the medics voice as he looks back towards its source framing the door of the section of drop ship, the medic turns, lifting an assault rifle from the ground as the hunched over, horrifying half robotic attacker runs into the room at an unreal speed, a bladed forearm slamming through the medics back before he could even start shooting. The attack spraying me with blood as the attacker tears his arm blade out of the medic's body sideways. This can't be happening, this isn't real. The man approaches me as he grins his half robotic face menacingly at me; I crawl backwards into the bulkhead of the ship section and continue to deny the existence of this monster.

The cyborg lifts its arm high in the air to slash at me, my life flashes before my vision, Atreus, my home, my parents, my brother, my teammates, McGrath, Everyone I know, I come to the conclusion, for them I am ready to die, but not this way. I open my eyes, the blade only inches away from my face as an armored metal claw grabs the blade arm and hauls it away from me, throwing the ma-thing into the wall opposite me. An _ACHELIUS _armored soldier, the armor painted the purple and white of a high ranking house Marik legionnaire, looks towards me, tossing a battle rifle to me, he spins and throws a punch as the crazed cyborg lunges at him, the armor powered punch throws the enemy combatant to the ceiling, landing it in an unceremonious lump on the ground, the armored legionnaire steps over to the machine man, it struggles to get to its knees to stand, collapsing as it tries, the legionnaire lifts his armored right foot, using all the force that the armor could muster, he slams it down into the metallic skull of the cyborg, crushing it in a hiss of electronics and forcefully flowing blood. The legionnaire flicks the blood off of his boot before turning to me.

"Fawkes, it's me Elyse, are you combat capable?" he asks whilst kneeling to look into my frightened eyes, my face reflected back at me by the yellow mirrored visor of his helmet, the terror and confusion evident on my face as it stares back at me. "Fawkes! Are you in there buddy?" he says, gently tapping the side of my face with his armored glove, eliciting no response from me.

I can't talk, I try but I can't, my mouth just hangs open, a sputtered exhale the only noise I could produce.

Elyse picks me up and hoists me onto the bulbous right shoulder armor section, my limp frame slipping into the low point next to his helmet.

"Shit… I knew using kids for a job like this was a mistake. C'mon buddy, I got you. We're going to get out of here you understand me. We're going to get back to base and get you taken care of." He says while ducking through the low door of the impromptu medical center, the body of the medic laid still at its entrance.

Outside in the burning haze of the wreckage from the conquistador the sounds of gunfire and the heavy earthshaking din of assault class battle mechs stomping around reverberates through my spine as Elyse moves me to the cockpit of a slightly damaged _Timberwolf_, settling me into the space behind the command couch, he strips the large plates of armor off of his shoulders and lets the back and chest plates fall into a haughty pile at my feet.

Removing the leg armor he straps himself into the command couch, plugging the interface for a neuro-helmet directly into the back of the power armor helmet, the cockpit closes down and the mech lurches to stand, its two ER-LARGE lasers casting an iridescent green glow into the cockpits space, a bone shaking vibration follows the _Timberwolfs_ single right arm gauss rifle firing off, the mech then stomps off at a fast jog. Keying the radio communications system on Elyse says "This is Legionnaire one-echo-eight, I have commandeered a captured enemy _Timberwolf _and have injured onboard. All Free worlds league mechs are ordered to retreat to the main base. This kid is hurt bad and scared out of his wits, requesting escort back to the staging area, over." The reply in the affirmative is nearly instant as an _ATLAS II_ and two _Hauptmann _flank the mech and match its jaunt towards the base. I lift myself up to try and look into the cockpit of the _ATLAS-II _to see if it was Miala, my head swims with darkness as I fall back to the deck, my consciousness removing itself from reality.

"You four are the pride of the new Knights, the starlight in the heavens of the great Marik empire, stand tall children, for today you graduate from being students of the Atreus battle school to go on the glorious path of knighthood" the voice of elder knight Lester Jyolme sounds in my head as the haze of my mind slowly clears, my eyelids too heavy to open I just listen to the sounds around me.

"I'm not really sure how well he will turn out, he will certainly not be able to fight anymore, the burns to his lungs are too severe to allow in combat. They will never heal properly, though he is very lucky to survive. Now Fawkes here should heal nicely, his injuries are mostly superficial cuts and scrapes, three broken ribs, and cracked vertebrae all easy for us to fix. He should be awake very soon if the readings on the meter are correct, though he is probably going to be hurting for a while. I hear he had a bit of a near death traumatic experience with one of those monstrosities that the… well by now we can drop the acts and all, there's no way in hell these are unorganized pirates, something much bigger is going on here. You and I both know it, so it's time to stop this stupid act of being the strongest force here. They out number us, have a full scope of the land and in reality the only land we have they let us have.

The situation on hammer isn't going well either; we are not prepared to handle war like this." The raspy voice of medical agent Lieser reverberates through the room, along with the footsteps of two sets of feet. One wearing light shoes and the other clanking on the steel decking being of assault boots, the metal toe cap clanking as it hits the ground.

"I know, but for now, the operation on the ground has to continue. Since the _DELPHI _had to leave to go rearm, and group up with the third star fleet, we have to keep higher security on the _Sidereus_ so the kids should be safe up here." The general sighs and the boots clank farther away from me. "Lieser; don't let these children back into the combat area, keep them aboard the ship. I-I can't live with myself if any of these kids got hurt. They may be soldiers, but they are not ready for war by any means."

"I understand sir; I will do my best at keeping them busy. I hope your plan will end our little adventure here and let us go home, we have already lost too many men to this damn dessert hell hole." Lieser replies as the combat boots stomp back out of the room, the hiss from a hydraulic door following the footsteps.

"Fawkes, I know you're awake. And for you I have good news and a lot of bad news. Your commander survived the crash, and the explosion, he ejected from his mech as the city was destroyed. But not before breathing in enough of the super heated air that his longs look like a chain smokers, and the bad news is, everyone aboard the conquistador was severely injured. You were one of the lucky ones, Niles was burned very badly, and Miala has broken an arm and three ribs, as well as a few third degree burns to her legs." Lieser says to me, stopping for a while to let everything he said sink in. I decide to point out that he missed someone.

"What about Hale?" I say, expecting a quick answer, but am met with silence for a moment.

"We don't know. He wasn't in the crashed conquistador when the search team got there, nor was he seen anywhere near the crash during the second search. The battle armor and stealth bomber teams are searching for him. He may have very well have been captured, but we are unsure. When we find out, he will be retrieved, alive if possible. The situation is grave boy, the ARES declarations have been voided, and a nuclear weapon was used to destroy a second dead city down there by our enemy. So once hale is retrieved… this planet will be laid waste to via an orbital artillery strike into its only super Volcano. Hammer was also attacked by these… crazies with a poisonous gas. We think they may be the Blakists that broke away from Comstar. But still something doesn't add up." He says with a large amount of hesitation in his voice.

"I want to search for Hale!" I shout opening my heavy eyes and trying to sit up, my body freezing as pain like I've never felt before flows through my chest and back, forcing me to lie back down and suppress a yell.

"you can't even sit up right now, you are not leaving this jump ship, and it will be a while before you can even leave this room. We will find him, no matter how long it takes."

**TWO MONTHS LATER, JUMP SHIP EQUITEUM SIDEREUS **

"So you guys found him!" Miala shouts as I walk into the tactical ready room, wincing in pain as my ribs are still tender, I take my seat next to her, the soft memory foam filled leather taking the stress off of my back and ribs, significantly lessening the pain.

"Yes, he has been located. But the agents that removed him from the enemy base report a very big problem, he's still hale on the outside, but it's like he's become one of them, he killed three of the four special operations units, the fourth was able to knock him out and drag him back to outpost seventy two, but… he escaped. Something strange was done to him as he left, and all reports sent to Atreus and hammers haven't been answered. For now, it hurts me to say this, but we will be heading towards Hammer to check the status of the planet. From there" Nils cuts off the general, slamming his bandaged fist into the holodeck in front of him.

"NO! WE CANT LEAVE WITHOUT HIM!" he yells, his face contorted in anger.

"I guess you do not understand me boy. We are already on our way to Hammer; we jumped at 0100 hours when you were all asleep. We will arrive in thirteen weeks, once we can confirm the status of the planet we will be heading out to see the Mercenary review and bonding commission to hire a few mercs to take over operations on the periphery, then we will be heading back to Atreus for a Marik ordered five month R&R. we will arrive at Atreus in approximately thirteen months if everything goes to plan." The General says, waling from the room before any of us could argue with him.

"GOD DAMNIT! This is bull shit man, he can't do this to us, to our team!" Niles yells as his frustration brings tears to his eyes. I don't even speak as Miala helps me stand up and we walk from the room and make our way to my officer's quarters, the unofficial recreation room for my team.

As the door seals shut and locks, I ease myself onto the top of my oversized bed, Miala sits at the edge, staring intently at a picture of the team when we were all going on our first mission together, the picture taken just before we left the spaceport, me sitting in the center of every one, atop a large box of auto cannon rounds, with Miala peeking out from behind me, her hair hiding the left side of her face, the snow dotting the ground around us, Niles sits to my right, a huge smile and a big thumbs up pointing at the camera, Hale, with a serious look on his face sits on the knee of a kneeling _BLACK KNIGHT_, I smile at the picture before closing my eyes and sighing.

"-ou feel about this" Miala mutters, the first half of the words lost to me.

"What was that?" I ask, enquiring for repetition of the words

"I said, how you feel about all of this?" she says, her voice sad, slumping her shoulders and looking away from the picture to look at me.

"It really sucks. I wish I could do something about it, but- but…I don't know, I feel like it's all out of my hands. I really don't know. How you holding up?" I reply, asking her the same.

"I want Hale back; I want my arm to not be broken… I want everything to just go back to before we started this stupid war… I want to go home." I painfully sit up and pull her into a hug "so do I. but I don't think that's a possibility at this point, I guess we can just hope it all turns out alright in the end." I say, pulling her tighter as tears gather at the edges of my eyes. I really wish I never was chosen to become a mechwarrior, I wish I could just have met all my friends and gotten to actually be a kid instead of a killer, I wish none of this was anything I had to concern myself with.

I wish that we could just have been allowed to be happy and live peacefully back on Atreus…


End file.
